Key Points
- The Ninja Smart Double Oven air fries, roasts, and bakes great, but it burns bread and bagels too easily when using the toast functions
- The device has a bit of a learning curve but makes cooking easy, especially when using the smart cook features
- The components are dishwasher safe and with some Dawn Powerwash and a little elbow grease, you can clean the inside in a few minutes
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been putting my new Ninja Foodi 12-in-1 Smart Double Oven with FlexDoor through its paces. From perfectly-baked cookies to crispy air-fried chicken nuggets and fries, I’ve been pleased with its ease of use and versatility. I’ve baked cookies, cooked a frozen pizza, air-fried chicken nuggets, french fries, and roasted vegetables. I even used the Whole Roast feature on a pork tenderloin.
Do I recommend the 12-in-1 Smart Double Oven? Absolutely! Is it perfect? Nope. All in all, it’s a solid appliance that does some things good and a few things great. So keep reading to find out if the Ninja Foodi 12-in-1 Smart Double Oven with FlexDoor is worth the buy for you.
Ninja 12-in-1 Smart Double Oven with FlexDoor
The Ninja Smart Double Oven is a pleasure to use, is easy to clean, and reduces your workload when making meals. In addition, the smart thermometer allows you to easily dial in your proteins to the desired temperature. While it has a learning curve and will burn your bread relatively quickly, it also makes it easy to cook healthy meals for yourself or a small family.
- Top & bottom oven can cook different items but have them finish simultaneously
- Enough capacity to cook a small family meal
- 12 cooking presets–it toasts, roasts, bakes, broils, warms, dehydrates, air fries reheats, and keeps warm.
- Included smart thermometer cooks proteins to your desired level of doneness.
- Makes it very easy to cook a meal
- Takes up sizable amount of countertop space
- Power cord needs to be longer
- Toast function cooks too hot
Ninja Foodi Smart Double Oven Capabilities
Built-in Preset Cooking Functions
This oven is called a 12-in-1 because it has 12 cooking presets. They are:
Top Oven Presets
- Broil
- Toast
- Bagel
- Bake
- Reheat
- Keep Warm
Bottom Oven Presets
- Whole Roast
- Air Roast
- Air Fry
- Convection Bake
- Pizza
- Dehydrate
The Ninja Foodi 12-in-1 Double Oven is very similar to the Ninja Foodi Smart XL Pro Air Oven, with a few key differences:
- It has two separate ovens that can cook at two different temperatures
- The ovens are sealed off from each other, ensuring no flavors escape from one dish into the other
- The device can cook two different items and have them finish at the same time
Testing the Ninja Foodi Smart Double Oven
Air Frying Test with Frozen Nuggets & French Fries
I found the air frying capability of this smart oven to be as good as any air fryer I’ve ever tested. For lunch one day, I air-fried honey bbq chicken nuggets from Sam’s, along with a tray of seasoned fries I bought from Publix.
The result was perfect, even though the fries and chicken had different cook settings according to their instructions. The chicken was supposed to cook at 400°F while the fries were to cook at 425°F, although for different amounts of time.
I placed them both in the bottom oven, selected Air Fry, and left it at the default 20-minute time. After pre-heating for about a minute and a half, the oven was ready.
Despite my mistake, everything turned out perfect
I forgot to use the air fryer basket and instead placed the chicken on one of the tray inserts that come with the unit. So I had to flip them about halfway through. But when the timer struck 0, the chicken and fries were perfectly done!
Recap of Air Frying Functionality
- The Air Frying feature worked great!
- Even though I didn’t use the proper tray, the food still turned out great.
Convection Bake Test with Chicken Meatballs
Next, I tried the convection bake feature on a chicken meatball recipe I made for my family. Unfortunately, while the instructions say to use a sheet pan on a wire rack in the bottom slot, that didn’t provide enough real estate to cook all the meatballs I needed.
Instead, I used the sheet pan on the bottom and the air fryer basket on the top rack, which would allow the air to circulate well enough to cook all the meatballs.
The meatballs weren’t evenly cooked, but it wasn’t enough to complain about. Every meatball was done, but a few were more done than the others.
Top Oven Bake Test with Cookies
So far, all I’d tested was the larger bottom oven. So after supper one night, I tried out the top oven with some chocolate chip cookies. Not the healthiest choice, I know, but the sacrifices we make for writing an honest review. 😝
In any event, the cookies turned out fine except for being a bit browner than I’d have preferred. While the DTC451 Ninja Smart Double Oven is easy to use, it takes some time to get used to how it cooks.
The default bake setting is set to 350°F for 11 minutes. So I let the cookies stay in the oven for 11 minutes after a very brief preheating. But I wished I’d taken them out about a minute early.
Also, a few of the cookies weren’t quite as well done as most. So again, the oven showed a tendency to cook less than perfectly even. Not a huge deal and may not be noticeable to some. All in all, the cookies turned out fine.
Bake Recap
- The bake feature cooked faster than I expected, so you’ll need to get used to how it cooks and adjust the bake time accordingly
- My cookies were slightly unevenly cooked, indicating it cooks hotter in some spots versus others
Smart Cook Test with Pork Tenderloin & Sweet Potato Slices
The Smart Cook feature works by ensuring the item cooking at the top finishes at the same time as the item at the bottom. In this case, I didn’t set a time in the bottom unit. Instead, I put a target doneness level and used the smart thermometer.
I want my pork tenderloin cooked “done.” The great thing about this Ninja Foodi Smart Double Oven is that you can use the thermometer to dial in your protein at just the right temperature.
I inserted the thermometer into the tenderloin, which went into the bottom oven, and placed my sliced sweet potatoes in the top one. Then, I configured the bottom range to cook the tenderloin to 160°F internal temperature. And by selecting the “Smart Cook” feature, the oven delayed the sliced sweet potatoes so that they and the tenderloin finished simultaneously.
The Smart Cook ability works excellently once you get past the learning curve of how to use the feature. Unfortunately, it took me about 5 minutes to figure it out. I had to consult the instruction guide a few times, but once I knew how to work the feature, my work was done!
Smart Cook Recap
- The Smart Cook feature requires a little reading to figure out how to do it. It isn’t self-explanatory.
- However, once you get it going, it’s nice to sit back and relax while the oven cooks the items so that they finish simultaneously.
Toast Test with Sliced Bread and Bagels
Does the Ninja 12-in-1 Smart Double Oven toast bread? Unfortunately, yes! In fact, it toasts it too well and aggressively, in my opinion.
When you select to toast bread, you can choose the “shade” you want your toast to be. The shade setting goes from 1 to 7. Take a look at the photos below to see what happens when the oven toasts the bread on the 5 setting:
As you can tell, 5 out of 7 is dark! If I had selected 7, I’d have to scoop up the cremated remains of the toast from the oven! I attempted toast again with a 2 out of 7, and it was almost perfect.
Next, I attempted to toast a bagel. I usually like my bagels well-toasted. So even though the toast was dark, I selected 6 out of 7. As you can see, my bagel was rendered inedible.
With both the toast & bagel features, I found the oven to cook abnormally hot. So my warning to you is that the toast & bagel feature gets hot quick! Unless you want them burnt, opt for a low setting.
Toast & Bagel Recap
- For both the Toast & the Bagel presets, you need to select 1, 2, or 3 for the Shade setting unless you want them to be dark or even burnt
Is the Ninja Smart Double Oven Easy to Clean?
All ovens like this one can be a little difficult to clean. That’s because crumbs can get dropped in places where it is hard to remove. While the removable parts are all dishwasher safe, they are fairly easy to clean by hand.
As far as cleaning the interior, use Dawn Powerwash. I sprayed it on my small kitchen towel, rubbed down the inside, and went back over it with the same rag once I rinsed it. After that, the inside looked spotless.
Is the Ninja Smart Double Oven Worth It?
I loved my time testing out the Ninja Smart Double Oven. Is it worth it? Enthusiastically yes! The oven was enjoyable to use and super convenient for certain types of meals.
Once you get used to how it cooks and how best to use it, you’ll find it’ll save you time and aggravation even when cooking complex meals for a small family.
Exterior Dimensions
Specifications
| Width x Depth x Height (inches) | 18 ¼” x 16 3⁄16″ x 13 3⁄8″ |
| Width x Depth x Height (cm) | 46.4 x 41.1 x 34.0 cm |
| Weight | 31 pounds / 14 kg |
| Power Cord Length | 13 inches / 33 cm |
How loud is the Ninja Smart Double Oven?
The oven does make some noise. It isn’t quiet but it isn’t loud. The loudest reading I took was 63.6 decibels, which is about as loud as a restaurant.
This normally isn’t a big deal if you are roasting a chicken or air frying something. But if you dehydrate something it takes 6+ hours. I can tell you from experience that it will get old after a while.
